Does it feel like you’ve been K.O.’d?
Dealing with neck pain can be very aggravating. Stiff, sore, aching neck and shoulder. After a while you start to feel like you’ve been in a boxing match, and you didn’t exactly win. So what do you do? If you ask around, friends will give you their take. Blogs online will say to either use heat or ice. Should you stretch or rest? Didn’t someone say something about getting up and moving, or, are you supposed to put it in a brace? Neck pain self treatment can be looked down upon, but there are some helpful tips on what you can do at home safely.
The answer to these questions can be all over the place depending on what resources you use for the justification of neck pain self treatment.
So what can I do?
Neck pain is very common, affecting nearly half of all Americans. This is directly relatable to our increasing reliance on sitting during both work and during our off time. Massage and Chiropractic are the most common initial treatment methods that most people begin with, followed by acupuncture and physical therapy. Then there are many that choose to go the drug and surgical route right off the bat. Neck pain self treatment, when taught with the emphasis of chiropractic, can help to maintain good motion of joints within the neck and back.
How to properly self treat
Although it varies from case to case, there are several general rules when applying self treatment for neck pain. The mostly used general rule regarding neck pain self treatment is ice for fresh injuries. You generally can’t go wrong in the first 24-48 hours of an injury or flareup with an ice cold gel pack on your neck.